Update: Murder of newly-wed: Police killed my son – Mum

Tears are still pouring as relatives, friends and associates are yet to come to terms with the murder in Lagos last Thursday of Ugochukwu Ozuah, just five days after his wedding ceremony. Ozuah was allegedly shot dead by policemen at the UPS Junction in Gbagada area at about 10:00p.m, while seeing off a friend who had visited him at home. The police in Lagos had swiftly denied their men were responsible for the killing.

But the mother of the late Ozuah, Deaconess Chinwe Ozuah could not hold back tears yesterday, as she insisted the killers were policemen and called on the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammad Abubakar to unmask the murderers. The deceased’s classmates at the University of Lagos, where he was undergoing a Master’s degree programme before the tragic incident boycotted lectures yesterday and staged a protest march, also demanding that the killers be fished out. Insisting that the police killed her son, the old woman, who is in her late 60s, wept as she spoke briefly to Daily Sun: “All I know is that the police killed my son five days after his wedding. I want justice to take its course. I do not ask for anything more.

The killer or killers of my son must be brought to book. The IGP must ensure that justice is done. Any other thing you want to know, my daughter is in a better position to tell you.” The deceased’s elder sister, Mrs. Nkechi Nonyelu, has had her eyes reddened with crying as she declared that Ugochukwu became their father after their father’s death and the loss of a second brother. Fighting back tears that kept streaming down her cheeks, she said: “Ugo represented the father figure in my family. After the death of my father and my second brother, Ugo became the father for us all. He was taking care of us all in all areas.

You can imagine how much he meant to us. I saw him last at his wedding on Saturday. He was in his elements and was very happy. After his wedding he went straight for his honeymoon and on Monday after his wedding. He called to say that he wanted to hear my voice and know how we were faring and I was wondering, saying, “hey! You are supposed to be enjoying your honeymoon. Why are you calling me?” And he promised that he was missing us and particularly me and that he would see me when he comes back but I never saw him alive since then. His wife is still devastated, traumatised and in a state of shock.”

Asked how Ugo’s wife had been taking the development, Nonyelu said, “his wife has only been able to mumble these words: ‘My hubby said he would see me in a moment, let me drop off my friend but I never saw him again.’” She continued: “All newly-wed couples would have lofty plans and ambitions for their future but now all those plans have been shattered. All we want as a family is justice. And we want the government to stop all these incessant killings by the police. Today it is our brother; Next, it could anybody’s brother, a son, a father or a sister. Just anyone. The police must stop these incessant killings.

Any officer that is not in his right state of mind should not carry gun. The government must ensure that it is only officers certified as sane by all indications that should be armed.” And pausing for a while, she said firmly: “We will ensure that we establish a foundation in Ugo’s memory.” Blaming the police further, Nonyelu said, “according to Irikefe, immediately Ugo was shot he ran for his dear life and informed his wife and others.

He ran back to meet the police with the DPO at the scene of crime. The DPO himself told me that Ugo was still alive, jerking, struggling for live when he got to the scene. And I asked the DPO, why he did not take him to the hospital immediately while he was still alive. At least he could have used his authority as the DPO to beat the traffic on the way and take him to the nearest hospital, which is Gbagada Hospital.

He could not answer. “And I also said DPO you were there when Ugo’s wife and others arrived and carried the body into the car. He said he was there but asked them to take him to the general hospital. And I asked, why did you not accompany them to go against the traffic and use your office to enforce that they get to the hospital on time. What Ugo’s friend said the DPO was interested in was to ask: ‘Can you drive?’ and he said yes and the DPO told him to drive Ugo’s car along with them to the police station and when he got to the police station at Anthony, he wrote the statement of the account of what happened, took it to the DPO and the DPO then took him to the hospital to see his friend.

“The DPO himself told me that he waited for him to finish writing his statement and took him in his own car to the hospital where Ugo was taken to. Irikefe said the DPO did this because he insisted on seeing his friend to know how he was faring. I again asked the DPO, ‘how come there is so much interest on your own part in this particular victim. Is this how you follow all the other victims to the hospital?’ He couldn’t answer my question. “I asked the DPO again, ‘we are all Nigerians and we know the modus operandi of the police to some extent. How come you had to go to the crime scene yourself?’

He said he got a call from the estate that there was a gunshot. And I asked him, ‘how come you didn’t go to the estate. You stayed at the scene of the crime.’ He was just looking at me. “I asked him again, ‘how come he didn’t go the estate but got to the scene of crime first before the relatives of the victim arrived and he couldn’t do anything?’

And again, I wanted to know, ‘DPO you got a call about a gunshot, how come a whole you, the DPO was the one that attended to the call and had to go to the scene, isn’t there any other junior officers you could send or call any of your men on patrol and tell them to go to the scene of crime?’ But he couldn’t answer. “And again, the police were telling us that they searched for the bullet shell and my husband asked them how they could think the bullet shell would still be found in the thick bush at that time of the night?

And they were saying they had torchlight. “And again, I am surprised to hear that a whole PPRO of the police is debunking the claims that Irikefe made his statement to the police that night. It is a shame and an indictment on the police. She said yesterday that the police searched for Ugo’s friend in his house but were told that he had travelled and I asked how did they know his house if he didn’t make a statement at the police station? We are depending on all Nigerians and the appropriate quarters in ensuring that Ugo would have justice.”